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As a field, economic sociology has had little to say about economic development. Much of this quietude stems from the latter's identification with "backward," "poor" or "developing" economies, and the former's interest in many of the advanced features of the richer economies. This state of affairs not only sets up a false dichotomy but also makes it difficult by construction to theorize or research the issue of economic decline, seemingly a necessary piece of any coherent theory of development.nnnThe (admittedly ambitious) goal of this seminar is to move toward a better theory of economic development. We will review several of the more common strands of thought on development in related literatures and then consider some alternative perspectives that might bridge this research and contemporary sociology. No guarantees are made that we will have a full-fledged theory by the end of the quarter, but with luck we will have breathed some new life into an often marginalized but critically important strain of social thought and research.nnnThe class will be a seminar based around the readings. Grading will be a combination of class participation, a take-home midterm and a final paper.

Why are some organizations more competitive than others? This is one of the defining questions of the interdisciplinary research field known as “strategic management.” In this seminar, we will survey the field of strategic management, touching on the four main theoretical approaches that have developed there. Note that I take a very broad view of the field of strategic management, reflecting the diversity of perspectives that are seen in this field worldwide. The reading list here is a small subset of a larger reading list that would occupy a 30-session course. I will make that longer version of the course available to you, although in this short course we will only skim the surface of this deeper reading list.nnnMost work in strategic management pays little attention to particular theoretical perspectives, and is organized more by the topic – the phenomenon being studied – such as market exit, growth, performance, mergers and acquisitions, innovation, and the like. I have catalogued the research in strategic management both according to theoretical perspective and topic, and that structure can be seen in this syllabus. I encourage you to use a similar structure as you try to understand the strategy field.

Social movement actors have helped initiate some of the major social, cultural, and political changes of the modern era. It is hard to imagine a major political or social reform that did not find its origins in a social movement or collective action. Social movement scholarship has flourished in political sociology and has recently gained a foothold in organizational theory as an explanation for innovation and organizational change. The purpose of this course is to provide you a roadmap for you to roam the terrain of movements and organizations, and be prepared to generate original research ideas that extend inquiry in your chosen area of research.nOrganizations and industries are frequent targets of collective action. Social movement activists frequently target organizations (e.g., corporations, universities) in order to bring about political and social change. Because most organizations are not democracies, movements must find ways to penetrate their closed boundaries if they are to have an influence inside organizations. At the same time, social movements make good use of organizations to carry out their own goals, creating structures that help them carry out their goals, reproduce their missions and tactics, and effectively generate collective action. Social movement organizations develop as vehicles for social change. One purpose of this course is to examine the complex relationship between social movements and organizations. nIn order to understand the empirical link between movements and organizations, we will rely on social movement and organizational theory. Like the phenomena they seek to explain, these theories are strongly intertwined. Since the 1970s, organizational theory has strongly influenced social movement theory. Mayer Zald, John McCarthy, and others imported ideas from the burgeoning field of organizational theory to move social movement scholarship beyond naïve conceptions of collective action and crowd behavior. Under the umbrella of resource mobilization and political process theory, organizational theory strongly influenced our understanding of the structural underpinnings of collective action. In recent years, social movement scholars have also begun examining the culture and social psychological dimensions of social movement organizations. nDuring most of the 1980s and 1990s, the link between social movement theory and organizational theory was a one-way road. Social movement scholars did most of the conceptual borrowing and organizational theorists, for the most part, ignored political sociology. However, in the last decade the opposing lane has been opened. The rise of economic sociology – a large theoretical domain interested in the overlap between market, political, and social processes – and a growing demand among organizational theorists (especially in institutional theory) for mechanisms that explain purposeful, strategic action (i.e., agency) created fertile grounds for social movement theory. In the first part of the 2000s, leading scholars from both fields began holding conferences and workshops and a few articles were published seeking to show the value of social movement concepts to organizational theory. This effort to link the two literatures has been well received. As more scholars began importing social movement concepts to explain organizational phenomena, organizational scholarship turned its attention (again) to issues related to power, politics, and contestation. The convergence of the two research streams has also begun to spur theoretical innovation, especially in bridging structural and cultural explanations for organizational change.nIn this course we will cover topics that explore how movements use organizations to propel change and that examine how movements help generate social change by targeting organizations. We will also evaluate the theoretical developments at the nexus of these two literatures, identifying the major innovations as well as looking for new research opportunities.

For students who seek experience and advanced training in empirical research methods. Analysis of experimental data with methods ranging from simple chi-square to multiple regression models, including an introduction to mixed models. Uses the free statistical computing package R. Prerequisite: An intro stats class (Same as Psych 252 -- Co-taught with Ewart Thomas).

This is a course in the design of social research, with a particular emphasis on research field (i.e., non-laboratory) settings. As such, the course is a forum for discussing and developing an understanding of the different strategies social theorists employ to explain social processes, develop theories, and make these theories as believable as possible. In general, these issues will be discussed in the context of sociological research on organizations, but this will not be the exclusive focus of the course. A range of topics will be covered, for example: formulating and motivating research questions; varieties of explanation; experimental and quasi-experimental methods, including natural experiments; counterfactual models; conceptualization and measurement; sampling and case selection; qualitative and quantitative approaches. This course is particularly oriented toward developing an appreciation of the tradeoffs of different approaches. It is well suited to Ph.D. students working on qualifying papers and dissertation proposals.

This seminar focuses on social psychological theories and research relevant to organizational behavior. It reviews the current research topics in micro-organizational behavior, linking these to foundations in cognitive and social psychology and sociology. Topics include models of attribution, decision making, emotion, coordination, influence and persuasion, and the psychology of power and culture. Prerequisites: Enrollment in a PhD program, and a graduate-level social psychology course. Also listed as Sociology 361.

This seminar considers the leading sociological approaches to analyzing relations of organizations and environments, with a special emphasis on dynamics. Attention is given to theoretical formulations, research designs, and results of empirical studies. Prerequisite: Enrollment in a PhD program. Also listed as Sociology 362.

This seminar focuses on topics relevant to organizational behavior, drawing primarily on social psychological and some sociological research. Topics vary from year to year. In Fall 2014 the seminar will focus on group and team dynamics. Topics will include diversity, power and status dynamics in teams, expertise and knowledge utilization, information processing, trust and respect in teams, team leadership, and multi-level perspectives on team and group dynamics, among others. Prerequisites: Enrollment in a PhD Program. Cannot be audited or taken pass/fail.

This course examines the interaction between organizations and their environments. It is given every year by a different faculty member. What follows is the description of the course for the academic year 2012-13:nnnThis research seminar explores recent theory and research on social movement organizations and their environments. We'll consider the way in which organizational theories help us to explain social movement phenomena, and the way in which social movement theories help us to explain organizational phenomena.